


Behind the Plating

by sbuggbot



Series: Voltbot Armilly [3]
Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Battle Injury, Don't copy to another site, FRIEND FEELS, Gen, Voltbot Armilly AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-29 10:37:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19018195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: An attack gets under Armilly's visor and chips her faceplate, which shouldn't be a big deal...so why is Armilly acting so secretive about it?





	Behind the Plating

**Author's Note:**

> Before SteamWorld Quest came out, some fandom frens and I theorized that Armilly might be part voltbot based on her bright blue eyes and a few other factors (a couple of which didn't make it into the final game). Unfortunately, the theory was jossed, but it's still a fun AU to have.
> 
> A couple of my other Quest fics were written with this AU in mind (["A Beginning"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18923851) and ["Shattered Spark"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18933082), to be exact), but it wasn't exactly the focus in either of those fics.

The coglin threw a primitive bomb of some sorts, one that sprayed spikes everywhere upon hitting the ground. It was unique and creative, sure, but it was about as pleasant as playing with Drillbees. It appeared that the device still had some kinks to work out; some of the spikes hit the coglin as well.

One of the little spikes slipped in between the slits on Armilly's visor and struck near her eye. “Auugh!” She dropped her sword and crumpled to her knees, clutching the injured part of her face. Her fingers found a sizable gap in her face plating. At the same time, she noticed a new dark patch on her face in the warped reflection on her sword, and it wasn't from her bleeding. Her heart leaped into her throat. It was exposed mechanics, and Armilly knew hers were far from normal.

Scrap.

She glanced up briefly. Galleo and Copernica were still fighting the horde they had run into. Orik had stepped in Armilly's place once she had gone down. He looked back at her with a nod that said, “ _I’ve got this,_ ” then turned back to fighting. The important thing was that the others were too focused on the bad guys to pay any attention to her. Good, maybe they didn't have to know, she could just keep hiding her injury until she could patch the damage up later.

If they saw how much of a freak she truly was inside….Armilly was positive her friends would be too disturbed to ever look at her again. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to handle her friends turning their backs on her. And Orik, someone who had fought by her idol _Gilgamech's_ side, had probably seen something like this in the past and learned that it was a bad omen.

Best keep it hidden if she could.

Armilly heard the rest of the party. Sounds like they finished off the last of the baddies. It also meant that they could actually pay attention to her without running the risk of getting stabbed. That was fine. She’d mostly calmed down anyway. She could handle this. Hopefully.

“Armilly, are you okay?” Copernica asked.

She flashed an easy smile and a thumbs up. “Yeah, I'm good now.” She wasn't even bleeding anymore, and head wounds supposedly bled a lot. “Was more startled than hurt earlier.”

Copernica stared at her. “...Your visor's still down.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Did it get stuck again?” Copernica asked. She had that look on her face, the one where she was trying not to laugh but wasn't doing a very good job at hiding it. “Do we need to get the WD-40 or something?”

Armilly put her hands on her hips. “No, my visor isn't stuck! I just felt like keeping it down right now, that's all.”

“Really, now? Any particular reason?”

“Um…” Armilly began. Scrap, she hadn’t thought that far ahead. “It's...it's just bright out! You wouldn't know under that big hat of yours.”

Galleo the professional basement dweller said, “I don't think it's really that bright out.” Besides, they were in the woods, so there was the tree cover above them as well. Also, it looked like it might start raining soon.

“Can't a hero-in-the-making keep her guard up? Geez!” Armilly started tapping her foot on the ground. It was more to get rid of some of the nervous energy that was building up from getting questioned like this than actual impatience. _No, they can’t know--ow, it stings so much..._

“There's nothing wrong with remaining vigilant,” Orik said with a one-shouldered shrug. Perhaps Armilly will open up later, he figured. “We should probably keep moving along.”

Seeing that they weren’t getting anywhere with Armilly, Copernica and Galleo decided to back off on her for a bit. Something still felt fishy, though. Galleo nudged at Copernica, pointed at his head and drew a couple of circles in the air while making a confused expression. All she could do was shrug in response.

* * *

After seeing her prod under her visor for the seventh time in the past five minutes, Copernica asked, “You sure you’re okay, Milly?”

“GAH!” Armilly about jumped out of her armor. “Don’t sneak up on me like that, Coco!”

“I...wasn’t?” Copernica asked. “I’ve been walking next to you for the past ten minutes, how did you not see me?”

“You were behind me…” She insisted, utterly baffled. Galleo shook his head at her. “How did I not see her then?”

“Hold on…” Copernica said as a thought occurred to her. Wasn’t that the side she’d hurt earlier? “Can you see how many fingers I’m holding up when I put my hand over here?” She put up three.

Armilly couldn’t actually see without turning her head. How hadn’t she noticed earlier? “Just the middle finger?” she half-jokingly guessed.

“No”

“How about from over here?” Orik asked. “Is the problem on both sides, or just the side that got hit earlier?”

“I can see you,” Armilly replied. “Why are you all so worked up?” She was probably more worked up than anyone else in the group, ironically. _They can’t find out, they’d never accept it._

“We're all concerned that you're hiding something from us. Whatever hit you in the face left you too stunned to fight for a while. Also, you were clearly bleeding not too long ago and you appear to have lost half your peripheral vision.”

Armilly sighed and let her shoulders drop. “It's fine, I can fix it myself later.”

“So you are hurt,” Copernica said. Her annoyance at Armilly’s dodging seeped into her voice despite her best efforts.

 _Scrap!_ She tried to wave it off. “It's just a little scuff, no big deal!”

“Can I have a look at least?” Galleo asked, moving closer and reaching for her visor.

She jumped away as if his hand was on fire. “ **No!** ” Armilly kicked Galleo in the shin and bolted for the nearest tree. She was already halfway up it by the time the other three had caught up to her.

“Armilly, please!”

“It’s fine!”

“Then why are you hiding it?”

 _“I don't wanna be a burden!”_ She screeched back.

There was a tense silence after that. Galleo and Copernica exchanged knowing looks. They both knew that being a burden was one of Armilly’s bigger fears, seated in the fact that her adoptive parents took her in despite not having very much themselves. (Both of her parents frequently reassured her that she wasn’t a burden and that they loved her very much, but she still worried at times.) It usually only bubbled to the surface when she was very upset. Once it was up there, though, it was difficult to calm her back down.

“Armilly,” Orik said as he stepped forward, “It's a burden on your friends to know that you're hurt and that you won't let them help or even assess the damage themselves. I’m worried, too.”

There was another long pause while Armilly absorbed this perspective on the situation. She wasn’t going to get out of this without them finding out. Dread pooled in her chest. Was she going to have to rebuild her life somewhere else in the Kingdom, once her friends rejected her?

Technically she had done it before, but she was so young back then and she didn’t have the deep connections she had now. Armilly didn’t have it in her to start from scratch again. But did she really have a choice at this point?

“Can you come down from the tree, please?” Galleo asked.

Armilly took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said in an uncharacteristically soft voice. She took her time climbing back down. Definitely stalling. Her hands shook. She wasn’t ready for this. Would she ever be, though?

“Let’s see that eye.”

Something in her snapped. “Alright!!” Armilly flipped her visor up, revealing the gash on her face. That alone wasn’t strange, but her inner workings were. They didn’t look like steambot parts at all, rather, some other strange sort of technology. It looked almost alien.

Armilly couldn't ignore the others’ gut reactions. She could have sworn Copernica's face blanched. Galleo's jaw dropped, and Orik looked genuinely shocked (and he had probably seen a lot).

“See!?” she barked, her voice breaking. A tiny spark jumped across the exposed part of her face. “I’m a freak! There’s a _reason_ I didn’t want you guys to know!” Now sobbing, she flipped her visor back down and looked at the ground. Armilly didn’t want to see her friends’ further reactions; she was hurting enough already. She turned to leave.

“That...wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be…” Galleo said.

Armilly stopped and looked back in disbelief. “What?” Not as bad as he thought…? Was he just lying to make her feel better?

“Armilly, you’ve always been a strange ‘bot,” Copernica said, pushing Armilly’s visor up. She kept a list of her quirks, even--from the fact that Armilly didn’t produce tears to her uncanny ability to detect thunderstorms before they happen. “How is this any different?”

“How isn’t it?” Armilly asked flatly. This wasn’t the response she was expecting.

“It kinda explains a lot, actually… Remember that time when I had a spell surge at school and nobody could figure out why?”

“Yeah…” Armilly said. She tapped the spot on her cheek. “I always wondered if this helped lead to that happening. Some weird energy feedback or something.”

“Well, I haven’t accidentally blown up a hallway while getting bullied since then…”

“That was a mess,” Galleo said. “But at least we all got out of school for a few days after that.”

“Does anybody else know about this?” Orik asked.

“My parents know that I’m built kinda funny, but that’s about it.”

Orik adjusted his mask. “I must say that in all my years, I have never seen anything like this before.”

“Yeah, well…” Armilly looked down. “I try to keep it a secret, a couple of people found out in the past and it didn’t go well.”

“I don’t remember that,” Copernica said. And she had been friends with Armilly for as long as she’d lived in Goosebucket.

“It was before I met you.” Armilly shuddered at the memories.

“Oh…”

That meant it was before Armilly had met her parents, too. She’d always been quiet about that time…

“Y’know what?” Galleo said. “It doesn’t bother me.” He pulled her into a hug. “You’re still the same Armilly I met at summer camp.”

She looked up at him, her voice wobbling. “R-really?”

Galleo nodded and his bird hopped onto her head. “See? Even Benji says so.” Armilly couldn’t contain a giggle from that.

Copernica joined in on the hug as well. “Armilly, you’re one of my best friends, I’m not gonna abandon you over something like this.”

Orik opted to keep his distance since he wasn’t nearly as close with Armilly as the rest of the party. He still gave her a little pat on the back, though. “I see no reason to push you away. I’ve seen far worse over the years.”

Armilly was speechless. Her different parts really _weren’t_ a big deal to them. She wasn’t going to have to run away and rebuild her life somewhere else. Things were going to be okay. What a weight off her chest...

It took her a moment to realize that she was crying again. It was a good cry, though. Her friends had her back, and even if this got out to the rest of the world, she’d be okay.

“Come on, let’s get that patched up.”


End file.
